SUPPORT of AB 1106 (Weber): Child care and development services: alternative payment programs.
I am writing to respectfully urge you to sign AB 1106 (Weber), a bill related to child care and working families. In 1976, as Governor, you set forth a pilot program to expand the growth of child development programs in the state by creating Alternative Payment child care programs in each of California’s 58 counties. The purpose of Alternative Payment Programs (APPs) was to allow innovative community based public and private agencies to develop non-traditional regional approaches that would support parental choice of access for children from birth on a variety of early care and education settings. Currently, APPs must use all allocated monies by June 30th. Often times, in the last fiscal quarter, when funding is identified, families are brought in for enrollment. Unfortunately, this timeline does not reflect the eligibility process that families must complete. When families do not complete the process by June 30th, monies that were initially budgeted are then sent back and therefore under-utilized. Parents who begin the eligibility determination process for child care need between 30 to 90 days to complete this process. As a result, if a parent begins the eligibility determination process from April through June, they may not have sufficient time to complete the paperwork. Therefore, the dollars allocated to APPs to pay for their child care must be returned to the state. The funding that is sent back to the California Department of Education (CDE) in unspent child care dollars is placed in a holding pattern until such time the contracts are reviewed and audited. The 36 month reference is generally the time that CDE needs to review and audit the programs. Following completion of the audits, the monies are then returned to the state. As a result, agencies send allocated funding back to the General Fund. Roughly 20 to 62 percent of the families that are in the process of determining eligibility for child care will not qualify. Those that are deemed ineligible, agencies will send funding back that was originally projected to cover costs. Many of the agencies will have already fully expended their contract dollars prior to the end of the fiscal year. AB 1106 permits the Superintendent of Public Instruction to create a contracting process to permit APPs to expend their yearly allocated monies over 36 months. It is needed legislation to keep allocated child care dollars earmarked for supporting California’s most fragile families. For these reasons, I respectfully urge you to please sign AB 1106.
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